Proposal

Proposal:  The Heavy Cushion

For this project I am going to make a cushion that looks light but is actually heavy. So this is paying on the illusion side of things.

I am planning to find suitable material that will work well with the project so that it looks aesthetically pleasing.  The inside will be something heavy like concrete or sand and the outside material will look soft, so maybe fur or silk for the fabric.

This interaction is focused on how people see a cushion as comfortable and light but then when it comes to interacting with it, it is almost shocking because it is unexpected.

Tutorial

For this class we brought along a prototype of our best idea that we would further develop. 

My feedback from the heavy cushion was to maybe use sand if iI couldn't get ahold of concrete. Also to think of the materials that I would use to make it look soft so looking into different fabrics that could work.

This is my story board for this project.

3rd Tutorial

Todays class we went over everyones ideas and concepts. It was really interesting to see what people had come up with.
From my brainstorm I shared a few ideas that I came up with. The first one was the memory cards, which is like the game but with smell instead. So you would have to match the same cards that smell the same.
My second idea was the fibre optic lights, and have wall of fibre optic lights that when you touched them it lit up and made sound.
The third one was Colourless food, so having food that looked the same but with no colour, so white carrots, and white meat etc.
The third one was the one I'm going to work with which is the Heavy Cushion, so it looks like an ordinary cushion but its extremely heavy, and once you pick it up and place it on your lap its feels nice and you dont really want to move. So this idea is going more to the illusion side of things, playing with peoples heads making them think its one thing when it is actually something else.

I found this image that I thought was pretty cool, it is actual steel cushions, made to look like material but really are hard as steel.

Tutorial 15/07/11

In this tutorial we looked at everyones objects that they brought into class. And each showed what their interactive object was and then we investigated it further to see what its purpose was and how we relate to that particular object, the feelings, emotions etc that come up when interacting with it.
We talked about the objects then put them into categories, here are some of the objects:
Stacker cups, (not made for drinking) : more of a skill
Poi, was a habit to play with them more fiddling around than using them
Cushion, a comfort thing. Gives a sense of relaxation
Necklaces : Again more fiddling things

We discussed what could be the motivations behind interactions, and why do you still play with it?

I think that most of the time we interact with objects with out our full awareness of doing it, and I find that interesting because I am now slowly starting to be conscious of what I'm doing and also what people around me are doing. Just the small things like twirling your pen, or playing with your hair, in a way could be seen as a sort of therapeutic thing that people do unconsciously to keep calm or relax.

Towards the end of our tutorial we got a morphologic box that we had to try and fill in with the different things that we had come up with in class.  For example taking the interaction of fiddling with something and trying to use that with the other senses, so how could you fiddling with taste?? Or smell??
This part of the exercise was challenging for me because it was hard trying to find ideas that are out of the ordinary. Even though it was hard to figure out how you would do something the same way but with a different was hard, it was really interesting to see what things came up.

From there we had to put down as many ideas as we could and brainstormed them, even if they were pretty unrealistic.

Interactive Objects Brainstorming...

I brainstormed around some of the ideas that came out of the morphologic box.  The one I really liked was the Fibre Optic cables that when you touch them they light up and each cable has a specific note, so when you run your hand through it, it lights up and makes sounds.

Tutorial

Today in our studio we had to bring along interesting objects, things that interact with the 5 senses.
I really enjoyed this class because it got me thinking about how we interact with different objects and also the reactions you get from it.  I didn't really realize how objects are designed mainly around how we react to them.  Finding out that there are a specific group of people who design the noise that a slide phone makes when you slide it up and back is pretty amazing.
This topic has really got me thinking heaps about all the different things that effect us in the slightest way but are a huge part of how we live our lives... very interesting.  And what I think I've found the most fascinating is the fact that most of these effects from objects that we interact with and respond to, are going unnoticed by ourselves, and that we do all things but most of the time are unaware that we have these perceptions about how we think it should look, feel, smell, and sound like.
Very cool, and it's cool how things can trigger certain emotions, feelings, memories etc, but I can see from my point of view that I don't always place that emotion or feeling from what I have interacted with. And maybe that just goes to show that perhaps we don't experience things as they are, as much as we should.....
Cool class. :) So much to think about.....

DSDN 112 - Interaction Design

Hello,

This is my Blog for my 112 paper, trimester two, 2011.  Lets hope I survive the rest of this year and make it out alive! :)

See you around
Kristina

Flexi Phone

Check it out...

I want one of these to get me to and from school!

okay last one....
Awsome Idea!! About the same size as a wellington apartment...